Signed and sealed, pick up in a couple of weeks, saw something I couldnt afford to miss and the offer of an interest free loan from my dad who was adamant that I use the circumstances to stop driving 10 year old cars. Took me half an hour to do the deal, most of the time spent is refusing GAP insurance etc and signing bits of paper to say I pretended to listen when offered a financial service :-/
i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee119/stunorthants/newcar_zpsdd67051e.jpg
I wonder if anyone can guess what it is :-)
Needless to say, while it may not be a long stretch from my usual, it was not a car I had on my radar at all and the search that threw it up was a 'thinking outside the box' type.
Very happy with the reasult though.
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Suzuki Alto.
Hope it continues to delight.
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 2 May 13 at 18:10
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I thought it was too easy :-)
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2009 Alto SZ3 with 48k on the clock so highish for the year but from main dealer, paid £3800 which doesnt seem bad at all for a 4 year old car. Nice colour too for once.
Usual full history, no cambelt to worry about, £20 a year road tax and apparently will do upwards of 65mpg combined. Insurance is grp 3 too so should keep the premiums down.
I didnt for one minute think I could afford a 2009 car and I just looked at Altos to satisfy myself they were way beyond me and there it was, just a few miles down the road. My dad said look at it, drive it and bag it if it is as good as it looks as I may not see another at that price locally.
Drives OK, seats are very supportive, it aint fast but it goes well enough if you wind it up and it has that cute 3 cyl thrum.
I think it was prob the best outcome as with that mpg it is a bit of future proofing against the inevitable rise in the price of fuel plus being quite a new car it has plenty of years left in it and may be a better car for having done plenty of miles early on.
i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee119/stunorthants/alto4_zps6ead50ee.jpg
:-)
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Paradise Blue Pearl Metallic?
Last edited by: Manatee on Thu 2 May 13 at 18:24
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Havent a clue. Its blue and the paperwork gives no clues.
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Can always consider an 'upgrade' to a Swift in a couple of years.
1.2 won't be far behind for economy and even a lanky git like me can get nice and comfy in it so probably quite spine friendly.
Haven't driven a 1.2 but since the Sport is far more comfy but just as good to drive as the old Ignis Sport I expect the 1.2 is a bit better still for comfort.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Thu 2 May 13 at 18:34
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My intention is to try and go 5 years with it by which time at current mileage it would have about 120k on the clock. I know that for me that is quite an ask and twice as long as ive ever gone before, but I need to make this car change work both personally and financially.
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Looks good. Why so long till you get it though?
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>>Why so long till you get it though? <<
My dad has some money in transit which takes ten working days so he didnt have to dip into his ISAs and looose some of his tax free allowance, so I wanted to be sure the money would arrive. It should do by early next week but never a bad idea to have breathing room.
Im not in a hurry anyway as it would be nice if im settled up with the insurance company so I can give him half the money back straight away.
I have no idea how long before I get the cheque but so far it has been a week now and things have moved pretty fast so fingers crossed.
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Isn't this basically the same as Nissan Pixo? My mum looked at Pixos and would have bought one if she wasn't offered a better deal on an Indian built Micra.
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Yeah same car.
Seems to be an ongoing issue with the engine mounts being noisy, have to see how it goes although it has a 12 month warranty so doing 300+ miles a week I will soon know if there is something to be looked at. The noise people describe sounds very similar to a noise my Charade used to make, perhaps these shaky 3 cyl engines give the mounts a hard time.
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Nice one FoR. I like the look of these myself, tried to get my sister to look at one as an alternative to the Citroen C1 she's just bought for her eldest daughter. Hope it works out for you. I have no doubt it will.
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Personally, I wouldn't lose any sleep if my son drove a 10-year-old car. In fact, if I give one of them the Prelude, it'll be a 15-year-old car they drive and I know neither would care if they weren't driving their present 4-5-year-old motors. What's the big deal? Are appearances that important?
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>> Personally, I wouldn't lose any sleep if my son drove a 10-year-old car.
Quite. Living off debt, even family debt = Living Beyond Your Means.
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>>Quite. Living off debt, even family debt = Living Beyond Your Means <<
Depends if you can pay it back. If any debt is bad, anyone with a morgage is living beyond their means.
My dad always taught me that if you see an opportunity take it and dont ever put yourself in a worse position for the sake of pride as pride does not pay the bills.
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>> Nice one FoR. I like the look of these myself, tried to get my sister
>> to look at one as an alternative to the Citroen C1 she's just bought for
>> her eldest daughter. Hope it works out for you. I have no doubt it will.
Much cheaper as well. When looking with someone else interested in alto/c1 size cars I noticed the C1 to be a fair bit more expensive. Not sure why they hold their money better, I would say there isn't much of a difference between them, yet the C1 seems to be in much greater demand.
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I see what you did there ;)
To the point in hand, to most people is Citroen better than Suzuki, badge wise?
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Mostly these things are being sold to young people, mainly wimmins I would think. I suppose most of the population, i.e. those who aren't car bores like us, would struggle to recognise a Suzuki badge, even if they've heard of the brand. This being the case, it will have zero image amongst the portion of the population who are most concerned with image, and would mostly be discounted due to that fact. So, in those circumstances, yes - Citroen would be better than Suzuki badge wise.
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>> Mostly these things are being sold to young people, mainly wimmins I would think. I
>> suppose most of the population, i.e. those who aren't car bores like us, would struggle
>> to recognise a Suzuki badge, even if they've heard of the brand. This being the
>> case, it will have zero image amongst the portion of the population who are most
>> concerned with image, and would mostly be discounted due to that fact. So, in those
>> circumstances, yes - Citroen would be better than Suzuki badge wise.
>>
I suppose you're right, something must account for the price difference. I wouldn't have thought Citroen would have had a good image amongst the non car savvy, but it does. I wonder though if people in the market for that type of car are concerned with image. I would have thought it's main market were cost aware and the retired?
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FIAT and Citroen have enormously good reputations for small cars, and are admired brands amongst the young, also due to the low insurance groups their smallest and cheapest offerings fall in to. Once people get beyond the need for Group 1 insurance rates, or need larger cars, the desirability of these brands plummets. In the UK, at least. From my observations of the sorts of people driving C1s, Pandas and the like, I don't see many retirees in them. They tend to feature more highly in Japanese and Korean cars - retirees aren't so sensitive to insurance groups I reckon.
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I reckon you're right. Makes sense I suppose, still good news for FoR.
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>>Not sure why they hold their money better, I would say there isn't much of a
>>difference between them, yet the C1 seems to be in much greater demand.
>>
"Never underestimate the stupidity of the buying public" would be the reason.
Be grateful. This ensures that a ready supply of cheap reliable cars, that lack a badge backed by a huge advertising budget, will always be available to us.
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I'm not knocking people doing, just wondering why. In that sort of market and price there's very little to differentiate the two cars (to me anyway) both built to a strict budget 3 cyl, low tax etc. Yet there's a pretty big gap in price, just wondered why?
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I know I have asked this before but how do you run a valeting business from a car that size?
Was it because you were going to folk's homes so didn't need hoses, pressure washers etc?
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>>I know I have asked this before but how do you run a valeting business from a car that size? Was it because you were going to folk's homes so didn't need hoses, pressure washers etc?<<
Nope, I take everything with me but water and electricity. I used to fit all my gear in a Reliant :-)
Actually it is party due to streamlining what I do - I am essentially a wash/vac merchant who does the occasional polish/windows etc and the money is ironically in the smaller jobs.
Tell you what, when I fit my kit in the back of the car for the first time I will take a piccy.
A brief run down is that I have three of those storage boxes, one for wheel cleaner/tyre paint which is sealed shut ( fumes ), one for my 5 litre tubs of various polishes and dressings and another for my two buckets. Then there is a bag with some spray cans and cloths, a few misc bits like a spare HP hose, my Karcher, my vac, hose, a stool, extension lead and a my 5 litre tubs of shampoo/pre-wash. I also sometimes have a long reach brush for doing the roof on tall cars which I take as and when I need it.
I assure you it all fits in and I dont need to use the front footwell either although I tend to put all my jackets/hats in there in the winter.
Last edited by: FoR on Fri 3 May 13 at 14:11
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>>I assure you it all fits in and I dont need to use the front footwell either although I tend to put all my jackets/hats in there in the winter
But does it involve the back seats being folded down?? My sister has an Aygo and there is not a hope in hell you would get all that in her boot!
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>>But does it involve the back seats being folded down?? My sister has an Aygo and there is not a hope in hell you would get all that in her boot!<<
Of course, I hardly ever have the seats up in the back of my cars unless Im carrying passengers. When I drove an Aygo we took it shopping and only two bags would fit in the boot which is exactly why I knew that even I could not fit my kit in one of them, plus the boot opening is too restricted to keep lugging a hoover through very often.
For the stuff to fit the main needs are a fairly intrusion free boot and seats that fold flat onto the bases rather than roll forwards as I need area rather than height, the rear seat in the Alto isnt even split so it is just one catch and the whole lot drops down and it is actually nearly flat too so perfect for my needs.
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Ahh - it all makes sense now!!
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Just for you, my kit in the back of this god awful Fiesta - note seats dont fold flat which means boxes tend to slide down :-/
i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee119/stunorthants/SDC10736_zps0a5a9abb.jpg
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I thought it was obvious you always had the back seats down to fit things in. I had a Golf mark IV and you'd not fit all you need in that boot either.
Edit: Looked at the photo now... you would struggle to get that in the boot of many cars without folding the seats. Don't try a VW Beetle :-)
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 3 May 13 at 20:35
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Can get a new Alto for £5995 on the road atm, there were two young women looking at them while I was there.
Salesman said something interesting actually - he said that although the Dacia Sandero was taking a few sales away, Dacia apparently cannot supply enough cars atm whereas Suzuki have plenty of stock in the UK and he had alot of people come to them after being told they would have a long wait for a Sandero.
I didnt even look at the C1/107 etc as they are expensive and having driven an Aygo I couldnt see what the fuss is about - the Alto is less of a sacrifice on practicality with a bigger boot and more economical being a newer design.
If anyone is interested when I pick it up in a few weeks I will give it a through review as you never really get a good impression just from test drive, but not being the fussy sort I tend to adapt to what I buy.
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Isn't it kind of a pain though, having to keep everything clean when putting it back in?
I'm surprised a cheapish van isn't the way forward.
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>>Isn't it kind of a pain though, having to keep everything clean when putting it back in?
I'm surprised a cheapish van isn't the way forward.<<
Nope, I have a huge rubber mat that covers the entire area so that protects the trim and carpets plus my kit isnt really dirty as such.
Vans are actually quite expensive ( more so than cars because they are very useable and there is high demand ) so a cheap van is almost always a knackered van or if you have something like the Carry van I had ( usually easier lives as flower vans etc ), heavy on fuel and expensive to tax.
A van is also one-dimensional whereas a car is multi-purpose.
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I'm glad you're getting a newish car. For a small bit extra money you're getting a lot newer car. Even though borrowing a bit from your dad, it makes sense doesn't it. Otherwise you might not even be in the position you were with the old car - had it not been for the accident you'd not be replacing it. And finding one in good condition and at a good price would take time.
In response to Mapmaker higher up in the thread, how many people driving cars worth over say £20k or £30k buy them outright for cash? I'd say most either have some sort of loan or PCP/lease deal. That's borrowing then. But if you can make the payments that is not living beyond your means is it? Unless you're saying if you don't have enough cash to buy something outright then you shouldn't? If you are, you're entitled to an opinion.
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I think credit is fine, provided that whatever you are buying on credit can be sold to pay off the debt if needed.
Credit becomes an issue when using it to obtain something which cannot be regarded as an asset. i.e. a holiday.
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>>I'm glad you're getting a newish car. For a small bit extra money you're getting a lot newer car. Even though borrowing a bit from your dad, it makes sense doesn't it. Otherwise you might not even be in the position you were with the old car - had it not been for the accident you'd not be replacing it. And finding one in good condition and at a good price would take time.<<
Absolutely, that was why my dad stumped up the cash. Originally he was going to top up what I get as settlement but he said that I may not see another car like that locally and I should jump on it. It was literally an hour from browsing online to signing on the dotted line, I knew as I did the sums that it was a good call - on my current mileage it should save me £300 odd a year to set against the loan just on fuel.
I thought the price was well worth paying as I had been looking at cars 4-5 years older and they were barely £500 cheaper.
This was my plan for 2014 and why I fully intended to keep the Charade till then but to get the chance to do it earlier is just a happy set of circumstances and an out of the blue loan offer from my dad - he isnt a generous man financially but he is practical and its not like he is getting much interest on the money right now so he is choosing to lend it out instead.
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I have missed this. I was more less penntyless when I spend £6600 on a brand new Panda. I had just lost the best part of £2k on my old Corsa then the head gasket blew which was the last straw. I just could not buy another banger again. I has heart broken, and was being treated for anxiety and panic attacks.
The Panda has been the best thing I have ever bought as it has saved me a fortune. Better MPG, much cheaper road tax etc etc.
Now I am still paying it of at £100 a month and probably will be until the car is very old but works out cheaper in the long run. I am lucky that the loan is now with my parents, so I am not paying any interest on it.
I probably am living beyond my means but you only live once!. It is just a balance really.
The second hand prices were not cheap enough to justify it, and to me there is a lot of value in knowing something is new. Would I buy another new car? It depends on what type of car I was in the market for, I certainly would not buy a Focus or larger size car new as you loose too much but I would probably buy something like a Hyundai I20 new or even a C'eed.
And for my job I do need a car, it is really more less impossible without it. For the first two years I did run my business without a car, but it was difficult and always had to use buses/trams and rely on lifts. When my dad broke his arm and was unable to drive, I had no choice but to buy a car (he was injured for so long his Escort rotted away) and drive it on L plates and that Rattle. Paid £350 for it, it needed a new engine but other than it was a good car!.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 3 May 13 at 16:20
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>> on my current mileage it should save me £300 odd a year to set against the loan just on fuel.
Don't bank on that (pardon the pun) - I have driven a couple of 3-pot cars and they can be very tedious to drive economically and seem to encourage some generous right foot to promote the 'thrum'.
However, even if it isn't any/much better than the Charade it is likely to be at least as good as any comparable petrol or diesel car.
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I have driven 3 cyl cars for years, I know how to drive them to get the figures and my type of non-rush hour A-road journeys tend to mean I get nice steady runs at 50-60 for a great deal of the journey. The Alto is nicely high geared in 5th so it should roll along quite nicely on low throttle.
In the Charade except when it is below freezing I always managed to hit the combined figure without a great deal of effort, maybe it was the cars you have driven, I cant speak for European 3 cyl motors, I have never sampled one.
Do remember that the Alto only weighs 885kg - makes a heck of a difference in cars that have low torque to have low weight too.
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Subaru Justy - cant remember what clone it was - perhaps Daihatsu Sirion/Perodua Myvi IIRC (2008 or 2009 car, non 4WD).
Not a long-legged 5th and painfully slow (coming out of a Forester XT maybe wasn't the best for comparing performance).
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Ah yes, the 1.0 isnt built for speed, my wifes Sirion has the 1.3 so it is far perkier, even with the autobox.
I drove a 1.3 manual Sirion and that too was low geared in 5th. Any 1.0 will feel slow after a Forester though as you say.
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New car - Manatee
